STADIUM DELAY BY EURO 2020 HOSTS

Brussels, venue for the Euro 2020 might have a stadium less available for the competition as Belgium top football officials claim a planned new stadium might not be ready in time.

There are political issues involved with the planned 60,000 capacity Eurostadium project.

A FIFA Council member Michel D’Hooghe says: “If they want to build it they have to start building very soon, and there I have severe doubts.”

Thirteen cities are to host the tournament across the continent and UEFA chose Brussels in 2014. UEFA has another city in mind for the tournament as problems hamper the planning, D’Hooghe added.

City and regional lawmakers’ disputes made Brussels club Anderlecht cancel plans of using the new stadium. The 50,000 capacity King Baudouin stadium lacks the required facilities for the competition of that magnitude.

Unlike previous occasions – France hosted the 2016 event, and Ukraine and Poland were the co-hosts in 2012 – 13 cities would host the Euro 2020 tournament in an unprecedented move.

The head of ICT for UEFA Daniel Marion says the body is facing the challenge of providing top notch IT infrastructure that would connect all the host cities. UEFA does not outsource the IT for is events so they have the experience and the capability to handle it.

Marion says it is a better alternative as UEFA does not have to “reinvent the wheel” every time. He hinted that all the concepts required are ready and that IT is working across the board and with vendors. He adds that the implementation would begin 18 months to the due date as the IT tools would be ready.

He says the task of having 9,000 people for six weeks is huge as they have to get to all the stadiums a month before the 2020 tournament. Then they would face cabling, logins and sounds. He spoke of the enormous tasks involved for the 2020 event but says UEFA has developed the capacity overtime.